Re-Visiting Adam Smith

[wkmac]

I admit it: I like Adam Smith. His perceptiveness never fails to impress. True, he didn’t foresee the marginal revolution that Carl Menger would launch a century later (with, less significantly in my view, Jevons and Walras), but give the guy a break. The Wealth of Nations is a great piece of work.
One thing I find refreshing in Smith is his wariness of business people. This is something we ought to frequently remind market skeptics. Smith knew the difference between being sympathetic to the competitive economy – which he called the “system of natural liberty” — and being sympathetic to owners of capital (who might well have acquired it by less-than-kosher means, that is, through political privilege). He knew something about business lobbies.

Adam Smith versus Business

 

[804brown]

Adam Smith versus Business

Here we go again: "Governments should do nothing..." This is the same thing we have been hearing for 3 decades now . Let the "market" decide as though it is some perfect arena that always makes the right decisions. Fact is it doesnt make the right decisions. But before we decide what kind of economic system is fairer and works for everyone, we need to have a democracy. Currently we live in a plutocracy in which both "markets" and government are owned by the 1 % who own or control 90% of the wealth in this country.

We should not idolize one famous economist such as adam smith as though he alone and his views are the only answer just as we should not idolize people like marx or ricardo. Creating a just and fair society means using all of the ideas that are out there and using what is good about each idea or system . It does not have to be pure market fundamentalism or pure marxian socialism. If both government and the "free market" are controlled more democratically, maybe a good hybrid economic system CAN solve our problems.